Builders' Conference Features 'Smart House'

August 20, 1986|By Jack Snyder of The Sentinel Staff

Home builders and suppliers from throughout the Southeast congregate in Orlando this week for the annual Southeast Builders Conference, one of the largest regional housing-industry meetings in the nation.

About 3,000 builders and industry-related people are expected to attend the conference Thursday through Saturday at the Marriott Orlando World Center Hotel in south Orange County.

Friday's keynote speaker will be Gen. Alexander M. Haig, a possible candidate for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination and a former secretary of state and White House chief of staff.

Other speakers include Don Evans, an Orlando architect; Hank Fishkind of M.G. Lewis Econometrics in Winter Park; and William Smolkin of Herbert-Smolkin Associates Inc., a nationally known housing marketing and research company in New Orleans.

More than 200 displays of housing-industry products and services will exhibited during the three-day conference, which this year has the theme ''Building the New South.''

Also on display will be the National Association of Home Builders' ''Smart House,'' an automated, electronically controlled home of the future being developed by the National Association of Home Builders' Research Foundation.

The Smart House has a state-of-the-art wiring system, with safeguards that would prevent a child from receiving an electrical shock even if a finger is stuck in an outlet. Other safety features include alarms that tell the homeowner if an iron has been left on, the refrigerator door left open or the front door unlocked.

Fire safety has been built into the system. For instance, the research foundation said, the system would refused to supply power to a lamp or other appliance with a frayed or defective cord.

The system also can be programmed to turn on and off appliances, lights and alarm systems, and to monitor heating and cooling for highest operating efficiency.

Once the system is in use by builders, home buyers are expected to qualify for higher lending ratios because of reduced operating and insurance costs made possible by the wiring system, NAHB officials said.